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Homeland security urges voting seat on EMS Commission to protect FEMA grant compliance
Summary
Guam homeland security officials told a legislative committee that making Guam Office of Homeland Security and Civil Defense a voting member of the EMS Commission is necessary to meet EMPG and NDMS coordination requirements and avoid compliance risks.
Lucia Perez, ESF‑2 lead for the Guam Office of Homeland Security and Civil Defense and a former EMS Commission chair, told senators that federal emergency response doctrine requires the territory’s coordinating agency to participate as a voting member on the EMS Commission. “Voting authority on the EMS Commission is essential to meeting the EMPG's coordination and governance benchmarks,” she said, linking voting status to timely NDMS activation and credentialing during major disasters.
Esther JC Agague, homeland security adviser, echoed the operational concern and urged the committee to report a substitute that corrects what she called structural defects in the draft. Agague warned that leaving GHS OCD nonvoting would make “a coordinator without a vote among the coordinated... an advisory bystander to decisions it is statutorily accountable for executing,” and said that status could produce FEMA compliance deficiencies and slower federal medical response integration.
